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August 13, 2011

G118: Mariners 5, Red Sox 4

In his first 22 starts this year, Josh Beckett had allowed a total of five first inning runs. Tonight, it took him six batters to give up five runs.

Ichiro Suzuki lined Beckett's first pitch to right field for a home run. Franklin Gutierrez singled and Dustin Ackley doubled, and Mike Carp singled them both in. After Wily Mo Pena flied to center, Casper Wells homered to left-center. Afterwards, Beckett (5-8-5-1-6, 99) pitched well, although he left the bases loaded in the fifth.

Boston scored four times off Felix Hernandez (7-9-4-2-2, 107) in the sixth. Marco Scutaro tripled and Jacoby Ellsbury homered (#20). With one out, Adrian Gonzalez bunted for a hit and Dustin Pedroia homered (#16) to right-center. David Ortiz and Mike Aviles singled, but Jason Varitek stranded them with a line out to second.

The Red Sox had a run taken off the board when a call at the plate in the fourth was reversed. With Ellsbury on third and Carl Crawford on second, Pedroia flew to right for the second out of the inning. Ichiro fired a strong throw home and catcher Josh Bard had time to tag Ellsbury, who barreled into him and knocked him flat on his back (Ellsbury's left knee drilled Bard in the chin). Home plate umpire Mark Ripperger appeared to think Bard dropped the ball for a split-second onto his chest protector before grabbing it again, and he called Ellsbury safe. Even if Bard had fully dropped the ball, he appeared to have possession long enough for the tag. After a discussion among the umpires, the call was reversed, and the play stood as an inning-ending DP. Terry Francona came out, argued, and was ejected.

Gordon Edes notes that, despite the claims of some media, Ortiz has actually "resisted the urge to make his future a focal point of this Red Sox summer". And when he has made "an occasional muttered aside", it has been "leavened with humor instead of anger".

Red Sox Records:

Lead after 6: 51-3
Lead after 7: 61-2
Lead after 8: 62-0
Tied after 6: 16-9
Tied after 7: 10-3
Tied after 8: 9-1
Trailing after 6: 6-32
Trailing after 7: 2-39
Trailing after 8: 2-42

W-L Has Its Flaws, But ...: On Monday, Alfredo Aceves improved his lifetime record to 22-2. He is the first pitcher in baseball history to win 22 of his first 24 decisions. Among pitchers with at least 14 decisions, Aceves's winning percentage of .917 is the best in baseball history (since 1876).

Are you fucking kidding me? I just get home from a crazy night, where I lost my glasses at a concert and walked around blind and fortunately Kim hadn't drank enough so that she could drive us home, and we're finally home and I found back-up glasses so everything is back to calm and normal... and then WILY MO PENA is playing in this game??? I will never forget this night.

i need to see the replay of the tiz foul in the 8th to see how close to being a HR it really was, as they seemed pretty revved up about it.

apparently the crawford double play was "4 unassisted" - sounds incredibly rare and impossible for a GIDP. they didn't tell me if he lined out or grounded out though, so i need to look that up too.

when discussing the ichiro leadoff dong, they said he hit the first pitch of the game for a home run, only his second HR of the year but 34th time he has "done it" ... done what? hit a leadoff dong? hit the first pitch of the game for a dong? had two HR in a season?

There's our troll, ladies and gentlemen. Hanging out at JoS at 12:19 AM on a Saturday night!

How does it happen that a Yankee fan (who enjoys the nightlife and claims to be 27) finds himself at a Red Sox blog well after midnight, making such barbed insults? One of three things must have happened:

1. Our man about town was actually home all alone on a Saturday night, up late with only the scattered postings of a few Red Sox fans to entertain him. Was he following along all night? (Even *I* didn't follow the thread for the entire game.)

2. He was out on the town, but had come home a early and immediately had to check in with JoS to see what was going on.

3. The party boy was out on the town, but could not sublimate his JoS addiction into wanton hedonism for the entire evening and interrupted his festivities to checked in on JoS on whatever device he carries with him.